Car street sign



May 26, 1925; 1,539,679

EM]. LARSON CAR STREET SIGN Filed Dec. 27 1923 S'SheetS-Sheeb l //V VE/YTOR.

ATTORNEY.

Enoch I Larson,

May 26, 1925.

1,539,679- E. J.-LARSON CAR STREET SIGN Filed Dec. 27, 1923 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 EHE5TEFl- EHEELEH ATTORNEY May 26, 1925.

E. J. LARSON CAR STREET SIGN 7 Filed Dec; 27,. 1923 Illvllllllllll'lllllllllllnllll lllllll'l'llll' 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 m VENTOR. Enoch Lam-son TTORNE).

Patented May 26, 1925.

UNITED STATES v 1 ,539,679 PATENT OFFICE.

ENOCH J. LARSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

CAR STREET SIG-N.

Application filed December 27, 1923. Serial No. 683,006. 7

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EN'ooH J. LARSON, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Brooklyn, county 'of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gar-Street Signs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in car street signs, for street railway cars, the object being to provide a car street sign with the parts so arranged as to automatically and positively indicate the various streets, thus not only adding to the general comfort of the traveling public but to relieve the attendants from calling out the streets.

Other objects of the'invention will appear in the general description.

I will describe a car street sign embodying my invention and then point out the novel features in the appended claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all figures. V

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a car showing a car street sign, part of car being broken away for clearness of illustration;

Figure 1 shows the roller, mounted at a .station, for actuating the car street sign.

Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of car on line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged cross section of car street sign on line 33 of Figure 2.

Figure 4; is a section on line 44 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is ure 3.

Figures 6 and 7 are detail views of roller, bearing the desired street name.

Figure 8 is an enlarged front elevation a section on line 5 5 of Figof car street sign.

Referring to the drawings, 10 designates a casing, which is securely mounted in roof 11 of car 12 bysuitable brackets 13, the lower portion of said casing extending be neath roof of car 12, and the upper'portion of casing 10 extending above roof of said car 12.

Casing 10 is divided in two compartments 14.- and 15 respectively, in which are slidably mounted members 16', saidmembers 16 open and close holes 17 Gross bars 18 are mounted between suitable brackets 19 ment with the roller sired outline of holes is thus fastened to front and rear of said casing 10. Upon said cross bars 18 are mounted members 16, these members 16 have slots 20, through which pins 21 and screws 22 pass, and are securely fixed into said cross bar 18, thereby allowing member 16 to be reciprocated. Holes 17 are kept normally closed by the member16 by means of tension springs 23. When holes 17 are opened by means of members 16- beingpressed downward, the latter is held down by means of a spring acting wire 24: which rides up over the projections 25 carried on the lower end'of members 16.

A pair of tracks 26 having teeth of any suitable length are secured to upper outer edges of said casing 10.

The tracks 26 are in ali ent with a pair of gear wheels 27 fixedl mounted to roller 28, said roller 28 having the name of the desired street thereon mounted in raised fixed letters 28; ear wheels 27 to roller 28 is mounted on s aft 29, the latter being mounted horizontally in suitable bearings 30, the latter being rigidly secured to the street station roof 31 or any other suit-. able mounting at the desired street intersection.

I. will now describe means for actuating the car street sign, the said means operating through the approach of car 12 to roller 28. The car street sign is rigidly secured in' top of car 12, and as the ar rides into engagecasing engage gear wheels 27, thereby rotating roller 28 on which is mounted letters 28. The letters engage the upper'end of the corresponding members 16, thereby depressing members 16 which is slidably mounted and projection 25 of member 16 engaging the tracks 26 ofthe spring acting wire 24, thus keeping the holes 17 open; the opened holes corresponding to the'raised letters 28 on roller 28. The derovided and these openings or holes are i-uminated by the electric bulbs within the casing, thus outlining the desired letters to render them visible.

The car street sign is located in center of car, and the light-outlined sign may be casing; roller 28 bein of suitable size as to rotate approximate y one half revolution for the formation of the desired street 10! readable from either end of car by means a of holes 17 being in both front and rear of letters on the front side of casing and the the'letters 285 on one side of roller 28 having their top formation adjacent to the bottom formation of letters '28 on the-opposite side-of roller 28, as is clearly illustrated in Figures 6 and 7.

Assuming rollers 28 at different street intersection with different combination sets of letters 28", letters appearing insign at pre-; vious street corresponding to letters 28 on the roller 28 at the next street will remain and those letters 28- not required will have their holes 17 closed'by means of thecam surface on lower end of member 16 that is being depressed for the desired'forma-- 'tion of'the required letter and which is in alignment with the already depressed memher 16 to disengage wire 24 from 25, thereby allowing the depressed member to return to its 'normal sltion bylmeans of tension spring 23, ence closing the undesired hole 17 7 I Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is l 1. In a street car sign, a casing formed with a series of holes arranged in groups,

the holes ofeach group being in vertical and horizontal rows, a closing member foreach hole mounted within the casing, an exterior member adapted to operate the closing mem bers in predetermined number and relative arrangement to correspondingly open certain of the holes of the affected groups, means whereby the operated closing members of a horizontal row of holes of a group are automatically held in 'operative positions, means carried by each closing member to release the previously operated closing members of any one horizontal row of a group, and; a source of illumination within arranged exteriorly of the casing and.

adapted for rotation to depress said closing members in accordance with a predetermined outline on the roller, to thereby open certain of said holes, means in the casing toautomatically engage said closing members when operated and hold them in operative positions, and means on the closing members to engage said holding means in the operation of such members to release previously operated members.

3. A carstreet sign, comprising an outer casing having a plurality of'holes, and securely fixed to a street railway car roof, said casing having rigidly secured to outer top edges a pair of toothed tracks, a plurality of hole closing members, a roller mounted for rotation to depress said members in accordance with a predetermined outline on the roller to thereby open certain of said holes and havin gear wheels to engage'said toothed trac s for rotating the roller, said roller being carried on a suitable shaft carried in suitable bearings, said bearings'being rigidly fixed to a suitable support. 7

4. A car street sign, comprising an outer casing having therein a plurality of slidably mounted members, a spring acting wire for holding said slidably mounted members when said members are depressed, means for releasing said slidably mounted meme bers when their depression is not required, said casing having sign-defining holes controlled by said members.

' In testimony whereof I have afiixed my "signature.

ENOCH J. LARSON. 

